MMA Personalities News - Page 69

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WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. – Trevor Wittman has a case of strep throat. Maybe. At least, there's a chance he does, and for a top MMA trainer, a chance is too much.
In his line of work, which requires getting right in the faces of elite professional fighters who are anywhere from several months to several days away from important fights, he can't risk the possibility that he might accidentally infect them. They have enough to worry about, and he can practically feel the white spots popping up on the back of his throat every time he swallows. This explains his uniform for today.
"I swear I don't normally dress like a ninja," the 35-year-old Wittman explains as he leads me into his little office inside the Grudge Training Center.

Nothing is taking Nick Diaz's mind off the task at hand -- not the hoopla surrounding his refusal to move up in weight and face Jason "Mayhem" Miller nor the possibility of competing in a boxing match later this year.
Strikeforce's welterweight champion is focused solely on successfully defending his title on Saturday night (on Showtime at 10 ET) in San Jose, Calif., against Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos.
If Diaz loses focus for just a short period of time, his reign could end. Diaz (23-7-0, 1 no-contest) is aware that Santos has enough power and determination to end his night quickly.

There's still some fight left in "Lil' Evil."
Former UFC lightweight champ Jens Pulver (23-14-1) this past Saturday submitted Mike Lindquist with a first-round rear-naked choke at an XFO event in Woodstock, Ill., snapping a six-fight losing streak.
It was Pulver's first win in over three years and would have retired had he fallen short against the unheralded fighter (6-20), Pulver said Monday on MMAFighting.com's The MMA Hour.

Jens Pulver snapped a six-fight losing streak and picked up his first victory since 2007 with a win in the headliner of Saturday's XFO 38 event.
Pulver (23-14-1) scored a quick, 49-second rear-naked choke victory over area fighter and one-time WEC competitor Mike Lindquist (6-20).
The event took place at Woodstock Harley Davidson in Woodstock, Ill., and streamed online.

Diaz recently signed an extension with Strikeforce. Though Gracie could not discuss the exact terms, he said reports the contract was for a three-year deal were inaccurate.
He confirmed that the UFC was interested in Diaz but noted that the decision was ultimately made to stay with Strikeforce because Diaz's brother Nate and his main training partner Jake Shields also fight in the UFC's welterweight class.
Diaz, however, is not closing the door on a return to the UFC (he fought 10 times for the promotion between 2003-2006, going 6-4).

Something had been missing in the two years since Pat Barry gave up his K-1 dreams and decided to become a ninja. Or a mixed martial artist.
One of the two. Maybe both.
Barry was doing everything he needed to become a well-rounded fighter, which in his case was a near-daily regimen of wrestling and jiu jitsu with his stablemates at Roufusport Academy in Milwaukee.
He toiled on the mats learning about the completely different application of leverage and balance. He learned about how to get out of bad situations and how to get back to his feet. He got tapped, a lot.

The news that Mark Hominick is one win away from a UFC featherweight title shot against Jose Aldo has been questioned by some MMA fans who wonder whether Hominick has really done enough to merit fighting for a belt.
But for his part, Hominick insists that he has exactly what it takes to beat Aldo, and that he's ready to throw things at Aldo in the cage that the champion has never seen before.
"Aldo has faced everybody -- he's faced top grapplers, top jiu jitsu guys, wrestlers," Hominick said on HDNet's Inside MMA. "But he hasn't faced a top elite striker like myself. I'm going to be in his face."

For as long as there has been judging in MMA, there has been complaining about judging in MMA. Now Nate Diaz is piling on with his critique of the scoring system currently in place. According to the "Kid from Stockton," all you have to do to win a fight is get on top of your opponent and hold him down. In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that Diaz was largely out-wrestled and controlled by Dong Hyun Kim en route to a decision loss at UFC 125 on Jan. 1.

The sad tale of once great UFC Lightweight Champion Jens Pulver will continue when he fights at XFO 38 on Jan. 22 against Mike Lindquist in Woodstock, Illinois. When looking at the current state of affairs for the longtime veteran, one can't help but wonder -- why continue? Why keep fighting after eight losses in his last nine fights and six in a row? Well, Pulver tells MMAFighting.com that he's not okay with ending his once proud career with that many consecutive losses.

While Strikeforce was in the process of putting together its heavyweight tournament, some high-profile participants requested specific opponents. No one requested a fight with Josh Barnett.
It wasn't that the higher-profile fighters -- including Fedor Emelianenko and Alistair Overeem -- sought to avoid him. In their minds, they simply had bigger fish to fry.
Emelianenko will take on Antonio Silva on Feb. 12 in Newark, N.J. Overeem is slated to face Fabricio Werdum on a date that has yet to be determined.
When the brackets were finalized, Barnett found himself in the less appealing group. That he isn't in the same group with Emelianenko, Overeem and Werdum reveals how much Barnett's star has dimmed.

Heavyweight great Fedor Emelianenko will leave it up to observers and pundits to determine who the No. 1 heavyweight in the world is following the conclusion of the 2010 Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix.
Should the winner of the tournament be ranked higher than the UFC heavyweights?
"That's probably something the specialists and commentators should decide," Fedor said Thursday on a conference call promoting his upcoming quarterfinal bout against Antonio Silva.

Former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver (22-14-1) will whet his appetite for an expected March fight with another booking later this month just outside of Chicago.
Now-featherweight Pulver is set to headline XFO 38 opposite Mike Lindquist (6-19) on Jan. 22 at the Woodstock Harley Davidson in Woodstock, Ill.
It's the former champ's second fight since being released from the now-defunct WEC following a stretch of five losses.

UFC middleweight Nate Quarry is ready to take over the world.
Well, maybe not literally, but he’s expanding his reach beyond the cage to explore new avenues in the television world, as well as clothing lines, comic books and even a film screenplay.

I definitely feel that I'll find a way to get him down and I think he's going to try to get me down too. He's a great wrestler and Jiu-Jitsu fighter as well, so I think this fight will definitely hit the ground. There are big differences between me and all of the other guys at 170-pounds. Koscheck shoots in a big blast double from outside and GSP had an answer for that. I have some different strategies and I'm going to try to come up with some new strategies because it is hard to get GSP to the ground. I have a feeling I'll be able to get him down there with my style."

Marlon Moraes has been a skilled fighter from the beginning, as his two Brazilian Muay Thai national championships underline.
But when given the choice, he picked mixed martial arts, and he became a second standout up-and-comer from his small Brazilian town.
Several years ago, when a martial arts show came to Moraes's home town of Nova Friburgo, he was asked to be part of it.

The UFC has added two familiar ring girls to the lineup for Saturday's UFC 125 event.
Former WEC ring girl Brittney Palmer will circle the UFC octagon in her first duties since the merger with its sister promotion.
Additionally, Playboy model and "The Girls Next Door" star Holly Madison returns to the organization for the first time since guest-ring-girl duties at UFC 100 in July 2009.

Georges St-Pierre is Sportsnet's Canadian Athlete of the Year for an unprecedented third year in a row, beating out 2007 winner Sidney Crosby in the final of an online fan vote.
St-Pierre's path to his third-straight award was not an easy one the third time around. Competing against 15 other Canadians in a bracket-style tournament to determine the winner, readers voted for their choice through four head-to-head rounds over the course of 16 days.
"Winning the Rogers Sportsnet Canadian Athlete of the Year award for the third time means a lot to me," St-Pierre told sportsnet.ca. "This year there were a lot of nominees that I really respect, so I am honoured that the fans chose me. Thanks to all my fans for their support."

Jeremy Jackson, who appeared on the television series, “The Ultimate Fighter,” pleaded guilty today to raping his former girlfriend in 2008.
The decision to enter a guilty plea came midway through Jackson’s felony trial, which began earlier this month. The change of plea stunned his lawyer, Russell Baker, who is with the Public Defender’s Office.
“It was against my advice. I tried to tell him not to do that,” said Baker in an interview, adding that he was extremely disappointed. “I feel that we could have beaten his case.”
The alleged victim testified that Jackson had threatened, intimidated and raped her on June 28, 2008. She said Jackson put a gun to her head. Prosecutors say it was a BB gun.
She said Jackson wanted her to call another man and have sex in front of him. She said he threatened to kill her, her children and himself if she didn’t do what he said.
Jackson, 28, will be sentenced on Feb. 14 and is facing 25 years to life, said prosecutor Thomas Dunlevy.
Dunlevy said Jackson pleaded guilty to one count of forcible rape with the special allegation of entering the residence to sexually assault the victim. He said Jackson was facing 60 years to life if he had been found guilty of all charges, including one felony count of criminal threat and one felony count of witness intimidation.
Outside the courtroom, three jurors, a male and two females, said they were also surprised that Jackson decided to plea guilty.
The defense began putting on its case today, and Baker had only called one defense witness to the stand. After the lunch hour, jurors were told that Jackson decided to plea guilty...

Phil Davis knew what he was doing.
He didn’t accidentally pin Tim Boetsch’s arm behind his back, grab a second grip and invent a shoulder lock on the spot.
“I know that position very well,” Davis said Monday on the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show. “Although I have never called it the ‘Mr. Wonderful’ or like my Twitter fans are calling it now, ‘The Wonderbar.’ I’ve never actually called it that. It’s just a variation off my kimura series that I do.”
Boetsch tapped to the hold 2:55 into the second round of their UFC 123 light heavyweight matchup. Davis credited instructor Lloyd Irvin for helping him win an $80,000 Submission of the Night award.
“I tell people Lloyd Irvin is like a ninja, a modern-day ninja on the ground,” Davis said. “I just picked up his kimura series and ran with it.”

They see some superficial things like Rampage moving forward the whole time in that fight and they attribute that to him winning those rounds," Couture told Paul Howard of ESPNRadio1100 in Las Vegas. "And technically that's not what was happening. It sucks to be a fighter and have that happen to you."